Euler–Mascheroni constant

γ is related to the digamma function Ψ, and hence the derivative of the gamma function Γ, when both functions are evaluated at 1. Thus:

${\displaystyle -\gamma =\Gamma '(1)=\Psi (1).}$

This is equal to the limits:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}-\gamma &=\lim _{z\to 0}\left(\Gamma (z)-{\frac {1}{z}}\right)\\&=\lim _{z\to 0}\left(\Psi (z)+{\frac {1}{z}}\right).\end{aligned}}}$

Further limit results are (Krämer 2005):

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\lim _{z\to 0}{\frac {1}{z}}\left({\frac {1}{\Gamma (1+z)}}-{\frac {1}{\Gamma (1-z)}}\right)&=2\gamma \\\lim _{z\to 0}{\frac {1}{z}}\left({\frac {1}{\Psi (1-z)}}-{\frac {1}{\Psi (1+z)}}\right)&={\frac {\pi ^{2}}{3\gamma ^{2}}}.\end{aligned}}}$

A limit related to the beta function (expressed in terms of gamma functions) is

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\lim _{n\to \infty }\left({\frac {\Gamma \left({\frac {1}{n}}\right)\Gamma (n+1)\,n^{1+{\frac {1}{n}}}}{\Gamma \left(2+n+{\frac {1}{n}}\right)}}-{\frac {n^{2}}{n+1}}\right)\\&=\lim \limits _{m\to \infty }\sum _{k=1}^{m}{m \choose k}{\frac {(-1)^{k}}{k}}\ln {\big (}\Gamma (k+1){\big )}.\end{aligned}}}$

γ can also be expressed as an infinite sum whose terms involve the Riemann zeta function evaluated at positive integers:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\sum _{m=2}^{\infty }(-1)^{m}{\frac {\zeta (m)}{m}}\\&=\ln {\frac {4}{\pi }}+\sum _{m=2}^{\infty }(-1)^{m}{\frac {\zeta (m)}{2^{m-1}m}}.\end{aligned}}}$

Other series related to the zeta function include:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &={\tfrac {3}{2}}-\ln 2-\sum _{m=2}^{\infty }(-1)^{m}\,{\frac {m-1}{m}}{\big (}\zeta (m)-1{\big )}\\&=\lim _{n\to \infty }\left({\frac {2n-1}{2n}}-\ln n+\sum _{k=2}^{n}\left({\frac {1}{k}}-{\frac {\zeta (1-k)}{n^{k}}}\right)\right)\\&=\lim _{n\to \infty }\left({\frac {2^{n}}{e^{2^{n}}}}\sum _{m=0}^{\infty }{\frac {2^{mn}}{(m+1)!}}\sum _{t=0}^{m}{\frac {1}{t+1}}-n\ln 2+O\left({\frac {1}{2^{n}\,e^{2^{n}}}}\right)\right).\end{aligned}}}$

The error term in the last equation is a rapidly decreasing function of n. As a result, the formula is well-suited for efficient computation of the constant to high precision.

Other interesting limits equaling the Euler–Mascheroni constant are the antisymmetric limit (Sondow 1998):

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\lim _{s\to 1^{+}}\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{n^{s}}}-{\frac {1}{s^{n}}}\right)\\&=\lim _{s\to 1}\left(\zeta (s)-{\frac {1}{s-1}}\right)\\&=\lim _{s\to 0}{\frac {\zeta (1+s)+\zeta (1-s)}{2}}\end{aligned}}}$

and de la Vallée-Poussin's formula

${\displaystyle \gamma =\lim _{n\to \infty }{\frac {1}{n}}\,\sum _{k=1}^{n}\left(\left\lceil {\frac {n}{k}}\right\rceil -{\frac {n}{k}}\right)}$

where ${\displaystyle \lceil \,\rceil }$ are ceiling brackets.

Closely related to this is the rational zeta series expression. By taking separately the first few terms of the series above, one obtains an estimate for the classical series limit:

${\displaystyle \gamma =\sum _{k=1}^{n}{\frac {1}{k}}-\ln n-\sum _{m=2}^{\infty }{\frac {\zeta (m,n+1)}{m}},}$

where ζ(s,k) is the Hurwitz zeta function. The sum in this equation involves the harmonic numbers, H_n. Expanding some of the terms in the Hurwitz zeta function gives:

${\displaystyle H_{n}=\ln(n)+\gamma +{\frac {1}{2n}}-{\frac {1}{12n^{2}}}+{\frac {1}{120n^{4}}}-\varepsilon ,}$

where 0 < ε < 1/252n⁶.

γ can also be expressed as follows where A is the Glaisher–Kinkelin constant:

${\displaystyle \gamma =12\,\log(A)-\log(2\,\pi )+{\frac {6}{\pi ^{2}}}\,\zeta '(2)}$

γ can also be expressed as follows, which can be proven by expressing the zeta function as a Laurent series:

${\displaystyle \gamma =\lim _{n\to \infty }{\biggl (}-n+\zeta {\Bigl (}{\frac {n+1}{n}}{\Bigr )}{\biggr )}}$

γ equals the value of a number of definite integrals:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=-\int _{0}^{\infty }e^{-x}\ln x\,dx\\&=-\int _{0}^{1}\ln \left(\ln {\frac {1}{x}}\right)dx\\&=\int _{0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{e^{x}-1}}-{\frac {1}{x\cdot e^{x}}}\right)dx\\&=\int _{0}^{1}\left({\frac {1}{\ln x}}+{\frac {1}{1-x}}\right)dx\\&=\int _{0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{1+x^{k}}}-e^{-x}\right){\frac {dx}{x}},\quad k>0\\&=2\int _{0}^{\infty }{\frac {e^{-x^{2}}-e^{-x}}{x}}\,dx,\\&=\int _{0}^{1}H_{x}\,dx,\end{aligned}}}$

where H_x is the fractional harmonic number.

Definite integrals in which γ appears include:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\int _{0}^{\infty }e^{-x^{2}}\ln x\,dx&=-{\frac {(\gamma +2\ln 2){\sqrt {\pi }}}{4}}\\\int _{0}^{\infty }e^{-x}\ln ^{2}x\,dx&=\gamma ^{2}+{\frac {\pi ^{2}}{6}}.\end{aligned}}}$

One can express γ using a special case of Hadjicostas's formula as a double integral (Sondow 2003a) and (Sondow 2005) with equivalent series:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\int _{0}^{1}\int _{0}^{1}{\frac {x-1}{(1-xy)\ln xy}}\,dx\,dy\\&=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{n}}-\ln {\frac {n+1}{n}}\right).\end{aligned}}}$

An interesting comparison by (Sondow 2005) is the double integral and alternating series

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\ln {\frac {4}{\pi }}&=\int _{0}^{1}\int _{0}^{1}{\frac {x-1}{(1+xy)\ln xy}}\,dx\,dy\\&=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\left((-1)^{n-1}\left({\frac {1}{n}}-\ln {\frac {n+1}{n}}\right)\right).\end{aligned}}}$

It shows that ln 4/π may be thought of as an "alternating Euler constant".

The two constants are also related by the pair of series (Sondow 2005a)

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {N_{1}(n)+N_{0}(n)}{2n(2n+1)}}\\\ln {\frac {4}{\pi }}&=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {N_{1}(n)-N_{0}(n)}{2n(2n+1)}},\end{aligned}}}$

where N₁(n) and N₀(n) are the number of 1s and 0s, respectively, in the base 2 expansion of n.

We have also Catalan's 1875 integral (see Sondow & Zudilin 2006)

${\displaystyle \gamma =\int _{0}^{1}\left({\frac {1}{1+x}}\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }x^{2^{n}-1}\right)\,dx.}$

In general,

${\displaystyle \gamma =\lim _{n\to \infty }\left({\frac {1}{1}}+{\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{3}}+\ldots +{\frac {1}{n}}-\ln(n+\alpha )\right)\equiv \lim _{n\to \infty }\gamma _{n}(\alpha )}$

for any ${\displaystyle \alpha >-n}$. However, the rate of convergence of this expansion depends significantly on ${\displaystyle \alpha }$. In particular, ${\displaystyle \gamma _{n}(1/2)}$ exhibits much more rapid convergence than the conventional expansion ${\displaystyle \gamma _{n}(0)}$ (DeTemple 1993; Havil 2003, pp. 75–78). This is because

${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2(n+1)}}<\gamma _{n}(0)-\gamma <{\frac {1}{2n}},}$

while

${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{24(n+1)^{2}}}<\gamma _{n}(1/2)-\gamma <{\frac {1}{24n^{2}}}.}$

Even so, there exist other series expansions which converge more rapidly than this; some of these are discussed below.

Euler showed that the following infinite series approaches γ:

${\displaystyle \gamma =\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{k}}-\ln \left(1+{\frac {1}{k}}\right)\right).}$

The series for γ is equivalent to a series Nielsen found in 1897 (Krämer 2005, Blagouchine 2016):

${\displaystyle \gamma =1-\sum _{k=2}^{\infty }(-1)^{k}{\frac {\left\lfloor \log _{2}k\right\rfloor }{k+1}}.}$

In 1910, Vacca found the closely related series (Vacca 1910 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVacca1910 (help), Glaisher 1910, Hardy 1912, Vacca 1925 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFVacca1925 (help), Kluyver 1927, Krämer 2005, Blagouchine 2016)

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=\sum _{k=2}^{\infty }(-1)^{k}{\frac {\left\lfloor \log _{2}k\right\rfloor }{k}}\\[5pt]&={\tfrac {1}{2}}-{\tfrac {1}{3}}+2\left({\tfrac {1}{4}}-{\tfrac {1}{5}}+{\tfrac {1}{6}}-{\tfrac {1}{7}}\right)+3\left({\tfrac {1}{8}}-{\tfrac {1}{9}}+{\tfrac {1}{10}}-{\tfrac {1}{11}}+\cdots -{\tfrac {1}{15}}\right)+\cdots ,\end{aligned}}}$

where log₂ is the logarithm to base 2 and ⌊ ⌋ is the floor function.

In 1926 he found a second series:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma +\zeta (2)&=\sum _{k=2}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{\left\lfloor {\sqrt {k}}\right\rfloor ^{2}}}-{\frac {1}{k}}\right)\\[5pt]&=\sum _{k=2}^{\infty }{\frac {k-\left\lfloor {\sqrt {k}}\right\rfloor ^{2}}{k\left\lfloor {\sqrt {k}}\right\rfloor ^{2}}}\\[5pt]&={\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {2}{3}}+{\frac {1}{2^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{2\cdot 2}{\frac {k}{k+2^{2}}}+{\frac {1}{3^{2}}}\sum _{k=1}^{3\cdot 2}{\frac {k}{k+3^{2}}}+\cdots \end{aligned}}}$

From the Malmsten–Kummer expansion for the logarithm of the gamma function (Blagouchine 2014) we get:

${\displaystyle \gamma =\ln \pi -4\ln \left(\Gamma ({\tfrac {3}{4}})\right)+{\frac {4}{\pi }}\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }(-1)^{k+1}{\frac {\ln(2k+1)}{2k+1}}.}$

An important expansion for Euler's constant is due to Fontana and Mascheroni

${\displaystyle \gamma =\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {|G_{n}|}{n}}={\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{24}}+{\frac {1}{72}}+{\frac {19}{2880}}+{\frac {3}{800}}+\cdots ,}$

where G_n are Gregory coefficients (Krämer 2005, Blagouchine 2016, Blagouchine 2018) This series is the special case ${\displaystyle k=1}$ of the expansions

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\gamma &=H_{k-1}-\ln k+\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {(n-1)!|G_{n}|}{k(k+1)\cdots (k+n-1)}}&&\\&=H_{k-1}-\ln k+{\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{12k(k+1)}}+{\frac {1}{12k(k+1)(k+2)}}+{\frac {19}{120k(k+1)(k+2)(k+3)}}+\cdots &&\end{aligned}}}$

convergent for ${\displaystyle k=1,2,\ldots }$

A similar series with the Cauchy numbers of the second kind C_n is (Blagouchine 2016; Alabdulmohsin 2018, pp. 147–148)

${\displaystyle \gamma =1-\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {C_{n}}{n\,(n+1)!}}=1-{\frac {1}{4}}-{\frac {5}{72}}-{\frac {1}{32}}-{\frac {251}{14400}}-{\frac {19}{1728}}-\ldots }$

Blagouchine (2018) found an interesting generalisation of the Fontana-Mascheroni series

${\displaystyle \gamma =\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n+1}}{2n}}{\Big \{}\psi _{n}(a)+\psi _{n}{\Big (}-{\frac {a}{1+a}}{\Big )}{\Big \}},\quad a>-1}$

where ψ_n(a) are the Bernoulli polynomials of the second kind, which are defined by the generating function

${\displaystyle {\frac {z(1+z)^{s}}{\ln(1+z)}}=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }z^{n}\psi _{n}(s),\qquad |z|<1,}$

For any rational a this series contains rational terms only. For example, at a = 1, it becomes

${\displaystyle \gamma ={\frac {3}{4}}-{\frac {11}{96}}-{\frac {1}{72}}-{\frac {311}{46080}}-{\frac {5}{1152}}-{\frac {7291}{2322432}}-{\frac {243}{100352}}-\ldots }$

see OEIS: A302120 and OEIS: A302121. Other series with the same polynomials include these examples:

${\displaystyle \gamma =-\ln(a+1)-\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n}\psi _{n}(a)}{n}},\qquad \Re (a)>-1}$

and

${\displaystyle \gamma =-{\frac {2}{1+2a}}\left\{\ln \Gamma (a+1)-{\frac {1}{2}}\ln(2\pi )+{\frac {1}{2}}+\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n}\psi _{n+1}(a)}{n}}\right\},\qquad \Re (a)>-1}$

where Γ(a) is the gamma function (Blagouchine 2018).

A series related to the Akiyama-Tanigawa algorithm is

${\displaystyle \gamma =\ln(2\pi )-2-2\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {(-1)^{n}G_{n}(2)}{n}}=\ln(2\pi )-2+{\frac {2}{3}}+{\frac {1}{24}}+{\frac {7}{540}}+{\frac {17}{2880}}+{\frac {41}{12600}}+\ldots }$

where G_n(2) are the Gregory coefficients of the second order (Blagouchine 2018).

Series of prime numbers:

${\displaystyle \gamma =\lim _{n\to \infty }\left(\ln n-\sum _{p\leq n}{\frac {\ln p}{p-1}}\right).}$

γ equals the following asymptotic formulas (where H_n is the nth harmonic number):

${\displaystyle \gamma \sim H_{n}-\ln n-{\frac {1}{2n}}+{\frac {1}{12n^{2}}}-{\frac {1}{120n^{4}}}+\cdots }$ (Euler)

${\displaystyle \gamma \sim H_{n}-\ln \left({n+{\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{24n}}-{\frac {1}{48n^{3}}}+\cdots }\right)}$ (Negoi)

${\displaystyle \gamma \sim H_{n}-{\frac {\ln n+\ln(n+1)}{2}}-{\frac {1}{6n(n+1)}}+{\frac {1}{30n^{2}(n+1)^{2}}}-\cdots }$ (Cesàro)

The third formula is also called the Ramanujan expansion.

Alabdulmohsin 2018, pp. 147–148 derived closed-form expressions for the sums of errors of these approximations. He showed that (Theorem A.1):

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\log n+\gamma -H_{n}+{\frac {1}{2n}}={\frac {\log(2\pi )-1-\gamma }{2}}}$

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\log {\sqrt {n(n+1)}}+\gamma -H_{n}={\frac {\log(2\pi )-1}{2}}-\gamma }$

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }(-1)^{n}{\Big (}\log n+\gamma -H_{n}{\Big )}={\frac {\log \pi -\gamma }{2}}}$

The constant e^γ is important in number theory. Some authors denote this quantity simply as γ′. e^γ equals the following limit, where p_n is the nth prime number:

${\displaystyle e^{\gamma }=\lim _{n\to \infty }{\frac {1}{\ln p_{n}}}\prod _{i=1}^{n}{\frac {p_{i}}{p_{i}-1}}.}$

This restates the third of Mertens' theorems (Weisstein n.d.). The numerical value of e^γ is:

1.78107241799019798523650410310717954916964521430343... OEIS: A073004.

Other infinite products relating to e^γ include:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\frac {e^{1+{\frac {\gamma }{2}}}}{\sqrt {2\pi }}}&=\prod _{n=1}^{\infty }e^{-1+{\frac {1}{2n}}}\left(1+{\frac {1}{n}}\right)^{n}\\{\frac {e^{3+2\gamma }}{2\pi }}&=\prod _{n=1}^{\infty }e^{-2+{\frac {2}{n}}}\left(1+{\frac {2}{n}}\right)^{n}.\end{aligned}}}$

These products result from the Barnes G-function.

In addition,

${\displaystyle e^{\gamma }={\sqrt {\frac {2}{1}}}\cdot {\sqrt[{3}]{\frac {2^{2}}{1\cdot 3}}}\cdot {\sqrt[{4}]{\frac {2^{3}\cdot 4}{1\cdot 3^{3}}}}\cdot {\sqrt[{5}]{\frac {2^{4}\cdot 4^{4}}{1\cdot 3^{6}\cdot 5}}}\cdots }$

where the nth factor is the (n + 1)th root of

${\displaystyle \prod _{k=0}^{n}(k+1)^{(-1)^{k+1}{n \choose k}}.}$

This infinite product, first discovered by Ser in 1926, was rediscovered by Sondow (Sondow 2003) using hypergeometric functions.

The continued fraction expansion of γ is of the form [0; 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 4, 3, 13, 5, 1, 1, 8, 1, 2, 4, 1, 1, 40, ...] OEIS: A002852, which has no apparent pattern. The continued fraction is known to have at least 475,006 terms,[1] and it has infinitely many terms if and only if γ is irrational.